Kickstarter Projects You Should Pay Attention To 8/7

The sidescroller reigns supreme this week on the spotlight! We’re giving a little extra real estate to two great projects that slap us into decidedly different two dimensional worlds. One drips with metroidvania, and the other adds variation to the 2D formula. Whether it’s slipping away into a coma and traversing distant memories or exploring a distant death trap, both of these games deliver awesome ideas and unique gameplay.

Ghost Song is being developed by talented artist and game designer, Matt White. Ghost Song looks to deliver an emotionally charged story of love, hope, and redemption by being a part of the game, the moments that comprise it, and the universe in which it’s set. I’ve had the opportunity to try an early build of Ghost Song, and I can tell you with certainty that this game is the real deal. The responsive controls, smooth animations, challenging enemies, and nostalgia fueled locales make Ghost Song: A Journey of Hope a pledge worthy project.

I was utterly impressed by what Matt referred to as placeholder art (basically what you’re seeing on the Kickstarter page). The prospect of the character models, level design, and animations all receiving a once over during development raised my hope flag even higher.

Ghost Song lets you blast away at enemies horizontally, vertically, and on the run very effectively. The currently nameless protagonist is delightfully dexterous. As of now, the ability to run, duck, dash (DAT air-dash), and jump are all precisely executed and the combat retains the challenge of retro titles like Metroid and even more contemporary choices like Dark Souls.

An open world full of potential dangers sits between you and your quest to piece together the history of Lorian V. Along the way you’ll free the ghosts of those who’ve met their demise on the Moon of a Thousand Terrors. A strong theme of longing and ultimately redemption is carefully told through interactions rather than lengthy exposition or mindless cutscenes that spoon feed you the experience.

Ghost Song: A Journey of Hope has the potential to strike a chord with more than just nostalgic gamers needing a modern throwback. It has the opportunity to unite the retro and contemporary indie gaming scene. Head over to Kickstarter and throw down some greenbacks for Ghost Song.

Waking Amy – Martian Media – PC, MAC, Linux

Waking Amy is an intriguing 2.5D puzzle platformer that lets you relive the distant memories of a comatose girl named Amy in a charmingly distorted fashion. Being a 2.5D platformer opens up tons of gameplay possibilities. Action can take place not only in the foreground, but in the background as well. Waking Amy takes inspiration from PlayStation 1 puzzle platformers and adds a dynamic combat system to the equation. Martian Media is dedicated to creating a more open experience that lets players decide how they overcome physical and mental opposition. In that way the game ends up being less about the developers vision, and what you make of the tools and situations your presented with.

Amy adopts special abilities in her dream world by fusing with animals she’s encountered in the past. You’ll utilize their unique aptitudes to negotiate each memory that consists in it’s own dream world. Each dream world has it’s own set of idiosyncrasies which translate into different types of puzzles and enemies.

I’ve always loved platformers, and peppering in a third dimension from time to time helps liberate the ties that bind. Waking Amy will tell an interesting story through unconventional means and allow you to decide how to navigate through each encounter. Head over to Kickstarterand help wake Amy.

In a time where more high profile studios are turning to Kickstarter for princely sums of money, and diluted primadonna‘s seek 300K to produce a film about their cosplay persona, it’s nice to see two realistically executable projects utilizing the platform. Ghost Song dashes off with our top pick this week. The demo we played solidified our support and we can’t wait to see what Matt’s capable of when all is said and done. Don’t forget to check out our up-to-date news, features, and reviews on a regular basis and follow us on social media via Twitterand Facebook! See ya’ll on the flip flop!

Dylan splits time between games journalism, designing video games, and playing them. Outside of his deep involvement in the games industry, he enjoys It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Shameless, A Song of Ice and Fire, fitness, and family.